Shell pays first UK tax for five years as record profit lands it with £15m bill

Shell paid around £7 million in UK taxes last year and a further £8 million in fees despite the Government’s plans to tax the oil giant’s record profit.

The company was able to write down its tax bill by around 42 million dollars (£34 million) due to the money it is spending in the country.

But despite the low bill, it is in fact the first time since 2017 that Shell has paid more in tax than it was able to write off.

The business paid a total of just under 18 million dollars (£15 million) in taxes and fees in the UK last year, it revealed on Wednesday.

It is a massive jump from 2021 when the oil giant paid 10.7 million dollars (£8.7 million) in fees on the one hand but on the other was handed back 132 million dollars (£107 million) from HM Revenue and Customs.

It left the company with a negative bill in the UK of around 121 million dollars (£98 million) that year.

The business has had a negative tax and fees bill of around 100 million dollars or more in each of the years between 2018 and 2021.

Global Witness, a non-governmental organisation, said that 2022’s tax bill means that Shell paid just £4.50 per citizen in the UK, compared to £1,171 it paid to the Norwegian public purse per person in Norway.

Jonathan Noronha Gant, a fossil fuel campaigner with the group, said: “In a year that the UK public saw bills skyrocket and millions were plunged into poverty, it is totally unacceptable that a UK based energy giant paid a pittance in tax to the UK.

“Governments around the world should help people, not polluters. They need to change the tax system by implementing a people-first tax on oil and gas without the loopholes, like in Norway, and a tax on big bonuses for executives.”

He added: “Despite record profits and enormous CEO pay it’s clear the UK windfall tax simply hasn’t worked. This Government has failed to effectively confront the extreme wealth and power yielded by companies like Shell, much to the detriment of its own people.”